Pine River Area Schools

Motto

Instilling PRide, one student at a time!

Vision
We honor achievement and promote PRide in ourselves, our school, and our community.

Mission

Pine River Area Schools, in partnership with the community, will provide a safe and supportive environment to develop individuals academically, socially, and emotionally, so they are enabled to perform at their highest potential.

Our new Pine River Area Schools MICIP Goal:

By June 30, 2028, we will implement an integrated (MTSS) Multi-Tiered System of Supports framework with fidelity across all buildings, utilizing a district infrastructure to support building level frameworks, resulting in increased student academic and behavioral outcomes.

MTSS is a comprehensive framework comprised of a collection of research-based strategies designed to meet the individual needs and assets of the whole child at all achievement levels. MTSS intentionally connects the education, health, and human service systems in support of students, schools, centers and community outcomes. The five essential components include the following: Team-Based Leadership, Tiered Delivery System, Selection and Implementation of Instruction, Comprehensive Screening & Assessment System, and Continuous Data-Based Decision Making.

Our buildings and District School Improvement Teams meet regularly to assess our strategies, data and progress on this new goal.

In 24-25, we evaluated Social Studies curriculum options and purchased new Social Studies curriculum for grades 6-12 for 25-26 and beyond.

In 25-26, we are evaluating K-7 Math and 4-12 Science curriculum options.

In 26-27, we will evaluating 6-12 ELA curriculum options.

In 27-28, we will evaluating K-5 ELA and 8-12 Math curriculum options.

In 28-29, we will evaluate our non-core curriculum options.

MHSAA approved Personal Branding Activities (PBA), commonly referred to as Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) for high school students. This change is effective immediately and allows student-athletes at MHSAA member schools to benefit from additional individual branding opportunities. Complete details of the new rule — including what is permitted, what is prohibited, and answers to frequently asked questions — are available at https://www.mhsaa.com/NIL. With this action, Michigan joins 46 other states, and Washington D.C., that allow similar individual NIL/PBA opportunities.

During the 2025–26 school year, our Athletic Council has been collaborating with designers to thoughtfully refine the many logos used across Pine River Area Schools. Our goal is to create a more cohesive, consistent and professional branding platform that represents our schools with PRide. While the work is still in progress, we’re excited for the end goal. More information will be shared this spring!

On February 13, 2026, our K-7 teachers will be attending their third and final session of virtual NWEA training for this year titled Analyzing Student Growth. This training plays a key role in educating our staff about how to best use NWEA testing results and reports to understand student needs, support instructional design and improve student growth. K-12 teachers and parapros will also focus on making our WIN time (What I Need) the best it can be for students. Our 8-12 teachers and paraprofessionals will also be focusing on NWEA, the new Character Development Leadership program and WMISD's Dave Johnson will be discussing teaching strategies for vocabulary and inquiry. This will be a great day of teamwork to support our students.

THe 2025-26 school year is progressing well. Here are a few items of note:

1. We are over half way through the 25-26 school year already! Seniors will soon be on their way to a new adventure in life. I know this makes some sad and some excited.
2. Our enrollment as of 1/26/26 is 874 students (in person and at our Pine River Online School).
3. Our next School Board meeting is on February 9. All are welcome to attend. Meeting agendas and previous Board meeting minutes are available on our website at https://www.pineriver.org/documents/board-of-education/89282.
4. Our winter count day which determines our state funding is February 11, 2026.
5. Students have a 4-day weekend in February due to the staff professional development on 2/13 and the President's Day holiday on February 16, 2026.
6. One Booster Club board member vacancy exists. Please reach out to the Booster Club or the High School if you are interested in finding out more.
7. The Booster Club's annual auction will be March 14! The auction and concession stand sales are the main fundraisers to support our athletes and band members. More volunteers are needed for concession stand events all year. Please volunteer.

Staff, thank you for all you do for our students and each other. We have an amazing, talented and caring Pine River Area Schools staff and a wonderful, supportive community!

With PRide,

Superintendent Michelle Gill

1) We have Free Parent Resources available online - There are numerous helpful videos on our website if you click on Parent Guidance, to assist parents and employees with a number of challenging topics related to children including but not limited to the following areas: anxiety, depression, body image, behavior, grief, self help, technology, etc.

2) Free Resource on The Importance of Belonging for Student Success

3) How do we call a Snow Day or Delay?

Communication begins around 4:30 a.m. to consider whether a snow day or delay is necessary. Most of the time, it's not a clear cut decision. Weather and conditions vary greatly over our 302 square mile school district area. Communication occurs among regional superintendents, transportation directors, and road commissions early and often. At least one person from the district drives the roads to see what condition they are in and advises the superintendent of such information. For windchills and temperatures, we use the Ventusky App. Prior to 6 a.m. and preferably by 5:30 a.m., a decision is made regarding whether school will be held or not and then communicated with all staff, parents, community and media.

Except for one so far this year, we have not typically delayed school in recent years. However, with the use of 6 snow days already, a delay could occur more often this year during the rest of our winter months. What works best for our district is a 3 hour delay. This type of delay would allow area snow plows to get out to improve road conditions, allow temperatures to rise to safe levels or allow fog to lift. Another advantage of a delay is that a delayed school day still counts as an instructional day for state requirements, but with diminished hours. However, we do have additional hours built into our calendar already.

If we get to a point where we have 7, 8 and/or 9 snow days, we can petition the state to waive up to 3 snow days and historically they have approved our waiver because we have extra instructional hours built into our calendar.

Thank you so much for passing our 2024 bond! School districts don't receive funding to maintain and upgrade our facilities unless we pass a bond or sinking fund millage. Our 2024 bond did not ask for our millage rates to be increased. We just asked to keep the tax rate the same, which is something we will need to do every 5 or so years as debt is paid off.

During the summer of 2025, several bond projects were completed including our new septic system, a roof top HVAC unit at the elementary school, high school and middle school gym floor repairs / refinishing, Chromebook purchases, window safety film, and more. We are still awaiting a final determination from EGLE regarding the closure of the septic lagoon, but they tell us they are getting closer.

The summer of 2026 will bring more HVAC work to our schools, as well as bathroom upgrades. Other smaller projects will occur including the elementary generator and more. It's going to be a very busy summer inside of our schools!

The Pine River Area Schools Board of Education met on January 26, 2026 to discuss District goals. Both Superintendent goals and Board goals will be presented for approval at the February 9, 2026 Board of Education meeting. Our current Board members are as follows:

Rob Kulpa, President

Heather Smith, Vice President

Kevin Delancey, Treasurer

Katy Draper, Secretary

Kim Dean, Trustee

Susan Stoll, Trustee

Wayne Tessman, Trustee

Our PRAS team gives thanks to Kevin Delancey for his many years serving as President of the Board!

We will soon be working on the 2026-27 school calendar.